In light of the recent security incident, I'd see that completely hypothetical situation as more admirable.
In that case, that would just be extremely bad messaging (which I also wouldn't put past Google). Why agitate half of the people on here and in other tech-affine parts of the Internet when they could have just publicly stated that they're working on it and to please have some patience?
Public support by Google, even if it's just in the form of a vague "intent to implement", would be so important for a nascent JPEG successor.
I use asking questions as a way to keep contentious discussions on track without being boorish. And you're right, it can easily be smarmy instead of Socratic without tone, a la the classic internet sarcasm problem.
Gentle note: I only asked one question, and only in the post you replied to.